88 Weird & Amazing Facts About Canada You’ll Never Expect

Only about 12 rats per year enter Alberta, Canada and are quickly killed by provincial rat control specialists before they can breed. Alberta is the largest rat-free populated area in the world.

2. In 1962 a Montreal Canadiens fan tried to steal the Stanley Cup from a display case in Chicago. He was arrested and reportedly told the judge he was trying to bring it back to Montreal "where it belonged." He was fined $10.

3. Since the end of the World War 2, Canada has been naming its 1000's of unnamed lakes after fallen soldiers.

4. Canada consumes the most doughnuts and has the most doughnut shops per capita of any country in the world

5. Anyone from Canada can order a portrait of The Queen and have it shipped to them for free

With less than 24 hours notice before the 2014 Olympics Hockey final Canada vs Sweden, Alberta changed the liquor law to allow bars to open at 5 am and serve liquor so people could watch the game at the bar.

7. Canada, the European Union, and the U.K. do not allow surgery to be performed on octopi without anesthesia due to their cognitive abilities

8. On July 23, 1983, Air Canada's Flight 143, with 69 people on board, ran out of fuel at an altitude of 41,000 ft. The pilot managed to glide the plane down safely as he was a very experienced glider pilot. 22,300 pounds of jet fuel had been put in instead of 22,300 kg.

9. During WWII, Canada had PoW camps. The prisoners are referred to as the happiest prisoners and were treated well. Many were given jobs, and some were even trusted with the guards' rifles to go hunting. After the war, many brought their families to Canada.

10. The University of Montreal had to cancel a study comparing perceptions of women between men who watch porn and men who have never watched porn because they "couldn't find any" of the latter.

In 2015, a Canadian creationist named Edgar Nernberg who believed the world is only around 6,000 yrs old, accidentally discovered a 60 million year old fish fossil while excavating a basement in Calgary.

12. An area of Canada nearly twice the size of Texas was almost renamed "Bob" after politicians in the Northwest Territories asked residents to propose a new name. The campaign to name the territory Bob began as a prank, but thousands supported it. Politicians and Aboriginal leaders were not amused

13. The maternity ward of Dutch Princess Juliana (sheltered in Canada during WW2) was declared international territory so that the child would be born in no country and inherit Dutch citizenship. In gratitude, she sent 100,000 tulips paving the way for the Canadian Tulip Festival.

14. Leonardo DiCaprio blocked a film he was in from being released in the US and Canada. The producer of the film has released it on the Internet and drafted a letter to Leo about it.

15. The Jay Treaty, signed in 1794, provides that American Indians may travel freely across the Canadian-US border. Native Indians born in Canada are entitled to freely enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration.

In 1998, a woman named Jean Terese Keating disappeared while awaiting trial after she had drunkenly killed a woman in a fatal car crash. In 2013, she was arrested in Manitoba, Canada after bragging in a bar about having gotten away with the crime.

17. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declared war on Japan before the United States did.

18. The man that shot the attacker at Canadian Parliament in 2014, Sgt-At-Arms Kevin Vickers, did so by diving through a doorway, flipping around to face upwards, and firing at the shooter while still in mid-air. He is reported to have said, "I put him down".

19. 4 skateboarders in Calgary stepped in to save a woman being sexually assaulted. They scared off the assailant, then chased him down and held him until police arrested him.

20. A motorcycle swept away by the Japanese tsunami washed up on the shore in Canada, the owner was identified and the motorcycle was returned.

Canada has a free 24-hour phone number for any medical questions that anyone can call if they're not sure they should see a doctor

22. HitchBOT, a robot designed to rely on humans to get from place to place. It successfully hitched rides across Canada and Germany before attempting to thumb its way from Boston to San Francisco. The experiment ended in Philadelphia when vandals left HitchBOT decapitated on a street corner.

23. After a 1942 shipwreck off Newfoundland, locals having never seen blacks before tried to scrub clean those survivors thinking they were covered in oil

24. In Churchill, Canada many locals leave their cars unlocked in case someone needs to make a quick escape from a polar bear.

25. A man in Calgary rescued a baby from a dumpster and later found out he was the father